Picture this. You're driving down the road one night, then
you notice there's a police cruiser following close behind you. You
figure the cop just wants to pass you, so you move over one lane, except
he moves over too and stays on your tail, then you see the flashing
red & blue lights then "Woooooooooo!!!" You must be wondering
why you got pulled over. You weren't speeding nor breaking any other
traffic laws, and your tag is not expired. Maybe it's just a burned
out taillight. "Sir may I see your driver's license and registration
please." Then comes the shocker! "SIR...Please step out of
the vehicle." You get patted down for weapons, drugs, etc.. "You're
under arrest for outstanding warrants" On go the handcuffs "CZzzzkkkkkk!
CZzzzkkkkkk!" "You have the right to remain silent..."
yada, yada... By now, you must be thinking "OH SHIT!!!". "I've
never been arrested before in my life!"
After you've been booked at the county jail, strip searched, fingerprinted,
and maybe spent the weekend in the slammer, you go before the judge
only to find out you're free to go, all charges dropped because it
turns out you're not the person they were looking for. Is this a case
of mistaken identity, or more likely, a case of stolent identity,
or criminal identity theft. In criminal identity theft, the imposter
gives law enforcement somebody else's personal information, usually
that of a friend or relative, or sometimes a stolen ID, upon arrest,
usually for a traffic ticket or misdemeanor citation. These rarely
result in arrest, so the person is released on the spot and issued
a Notice to Appear in court. The person fails to appear in court and
maybe skips town, so then the judge puts out an arrest warrant. The
victim is usually falsely arrested on outstanding warrant for failure
to appear. Stolen photo IDs have been successfully used when the age
and appearance of the imposter and victim are similar. Police are
tending to be much more cautious today to avoid this scenario, to
avoid false arrest lawsuits.
Even worse, in some cases, the imposter was arrested for a serious
offense such as a felony or drunk driving, and the victim's identity
ends up in the criminal database system. The identity theft victim
might find out that he or she is suddenly disqualified from purchasing
a firearm at a gunshow because they failed the State's instant background
check, or the victim might unexpectedly get a call into their boss's
office at work, to be informed they are terminated because a criminal
record came up in a routine employee background check. In the end
you probably wished this identity thief were caught in Saudi Arabia
where he'd be sentenced to hundreds of lashes in the public square.
Fortunately criminal identity theft is rare but it has happened.
The most common type of identity theft is financial usually involving
credit cards.
Unfortunately, the criminal justice system does not yet have a decent
contingency plan in place to clear an innocent person's name, and
the burdon of clearing one's name usually lies with the victim, usually
at great expense hiring over-priced attorneys. Your best defense is
to pick your friends carefully and safeguard your personal information.
Report any lost or stolen licenses or passports to law enforcement
immediately.
Financial Identity theft
You know you have spotless credit. You've always paid your bills
early and never even carried a balance on your credit card, except
for some mysterious reason this no longer seems to be the case. You
apply for a new home mortgage, but it's immediately declined for bad
credit. Delinquent accounts, chargeoffs, etc... One day you might
start getting harassing phone calls from bill collectors, claiming
you're delinquent on payments, and you owe some bank you have never
done business with $95,000.00!!! Even worse, you get a subpoena in
the mail informing you, you've been summoned to appear in civil court.
You're now being sued.
Unfortunately, this is not fiction and it's no laughing matter. These
scenarios have happened to real people, and has been known to drive
a few victims to suicide. While the problem is not 100% preventable,
there are a few common sense steps you can follow to protect yourself
and greatly reduce your risk of becoming a victim. Invest in a good
paper scredder to destroy all financial statements, before you throw
them away. It's a good idea to use a major credit card for purchases
instead of your check card that your bank issued to you for your checking
account. Surprisingly to most people, dumpster diving is still accounts
for the vast majority of identity thefts, despite the popular belief
that identities are only stolen by computer. According to the Federal
Trade Commission, only 12% of identity thefts were electronic in nature,
while the remaining 88% were committed the old fashioned way by dumpster
diving. While some are locked, or kept in a secure area, most dumpsters
are not secure, and many contain valuable personal and financial information.
Just about anybody posing as an ordinary middle-class person just
looking for cardboard boxes has access to dumpsters.
Fraudulent charges average $90.000
Many victims spend 600 hours of their time dealing with the problem.
85% of victims discover they've been victimized the hard way, rather
than through proactive means.
The impact of an identity theft can be as bad as a violent crime.
Although financial institutions and the credit bureaus have made much
progress understanding this problem, they still have a long way to
go.